Readers Respond

Sorry, Baltimore Sun, your editorial, “School budget woes hit the suburbs; how will Hogan respond?” (Feb. 19), has a major flaw. Maryland is already a very high tax state and there is not unlimited money that Gov. Larry Hogan can make magically appear to give to schools. Even though Governor Hogan...

The proposed “End-of-Life Option Act” being considered by the Maryland legislature isolates persons with terminal illness at a time when doctors, nurses and other health team members seek to stand in solidarity with their patients and their families to deliver compassionate quality care (“Retired...

As an former graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University math department, I take issue with the numbers thrown around in the article concerning a private Hopkins police force ( “More than 60 Johns Hopkins University faculty members write letter protesting private police force,” Feb. 18) First,...

The recent news that Russia has been found to be in noncompliance with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (IMF) treaty and the resultant U.S. decision to put Russia on notice that we will pull out of the agreement in six months is troubling on several levels (“Trump suspends arms treaty, citing...

The predicted increased tax bite suffered by Maryland taxpayers this year is finally here, as described by Andrew M. Schaufele of the Bureau of Revenue Estimates (“As Marylanders do their taxes, many are asking: Why’d I get such a big tax hike?” Feb. 15). I have been discussing the issue with Howard...

Front page, top of the fold: (“Baltimore mayor blasts Pimlico owners, who say they want to move Preakness to Laurel,” Feb. 20). That is precious! The Pimlico owners should be blasting Mayor Catherine Pugh and every predecessor post William Donald Schaefer for allowing the city to deteriorate to...

Op-Eds

I’ll turn 60 this year, a milestone age in most views. I’ve settled into middle age at this point: 32-year marriage, house paid off, three kids through college with jobs and health insurance, two dogs. The dogs are good company, and we talk to them as if they are our children, half-expecting answers...

Even before Special Counsel Robert Mueller finishes his investigations of Donald Trump, the president's effort to usurp Congress' power of the purse under Article I of the Constitution itself warrants his impeachment. Perhaps unwittingly, he admitted the fallacy of his allegation that building...

The president's decision to declare a national emergency at the southern border was an act of weakness, not strength. I understand that's not the party line, but it's an obvious political fact. When Barack Obama used his pen to give "Dreamers" a reprieve from prosecution, it was an act of weakness,...

During the most recent court hearing on the consent decree designed to transform the Baltimore Police Department, U.S. District Court Judge James Bredar, who is overseeing its implementation, spoke of some impediments to the process thus far. He lamented the lack of a permanent police commissioner...

A brief glance at the barely known racial attitudes of the presidents we celebrated earlier this week would surely cause the current crop of historical revisionists to blanch and hyperventilate. Those seeking to cleanse the culture of politically incorrect views might find that the outrage they...

Editorials

Mayor Catherine Pugh’s letter ripping into the owners of the Maryland Jockey Club was shocking in its tone, and it probably didn’t much help the city’s cause of maintaining the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore. We would not have thought much could be done to build sympathy for the Stronach family,...

It’s been a rough week for those of us assigned the mission of tracking alternative facts — or long-form, self-serving fiction, as the more poetical among us might call it. From the border “emergency” nonsense (proving only that West Wing security has effectively kept Stephen Miller and the facts...

Baltimore County’s school board just voted to send County Executive John A. Olszewski Jr. a budget request he says the county can’t afford. There’s actually talk in the county about raising taxes for the first time since the ‘90s to avoid cuts to the schools. The Howard County school board made...

Some people would like to keep lynchings in the past. It happened so long ago, they will say. Why dredge up animosity from a generation ago? One reader wrote in a recent letter to the editor: Resentment can be stirred among white individuals who hold no racist views yet are being made to feel that...

Our view: Rarely has a legal defense of the U.S. Constitution been more clear-cut than the multi-state lawsuit challenging President Trump’s bogus border emergency For anyone who might still be complaining that Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh is too quick to sue the federal government, we...

More Letters to the Editor

Seattle’s community policing plan suggests that residents, “problem solve without relying on the police.” That is wrong-minded. Neighbors should proactively patrol and meet monthly with police. City and other neighborhoods should adopt their own Citizens on Patrol. The Towson Area Citizons on Patrol...

Assisted or unassisted suicide is still suicide, and its purpose is to end someone’s life. It is basically playing God to determine when someone dies. Doctors who engage in this practice are assisting in a form of murder (“Hopkins doctor: Physician-assisted suicide is unethical and dangerous,”...

The cartoonish caricature of Lyndon LaRouche presented in the Washington Post obituary The Sun reprinted (“Perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche dead at 96,” Feb. 18) bore zero resemblance to the actual man with whom I have been proudly associated for nearly 59 years. But rather than...

The Baltimore Sun ran a thorough piece (“Support grows for raising Maryland's minimum wage, but not all agree. Debate could focus on how much — and where, Dec. 25) detailing the various perspectives on proposed legislation to raise Maryland’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. One consideration not...

I read with considerable anger and outrage Herb Cromwell's commentary, “I should have known about blackface” (Feb. 17). Blackface is as oppressive and offensive as any other form of anti-black behavior. Whites should already know this. Now at the age of 76, I have never been surprised by the ignorance...

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski's commentary on Baltimore County’s budget crisis and the stated need for the schools to cut their budget illustrates why county control of the school system's funding should be ended (“Baltimore County executive: school budget can be trimmed without affecting...

With the death of Ethel Ennis, a big chunk of Baltimore's heart has been lost as well (“Ethel Ennis, Baltimore’s ‘First Lady of Jazz,’ dies at 86,” Feb. 18). Ethel was a Baltimorean and proud of it. She believed in her hometown and in some ways sacrificed her career by being in love with, committed...